Just about every superhero has some kind of strict moral code, usually regarding murdering their enemies (they're against it). Comics writers put the moral code in to keep our heroes likable, and to prove that they're better than the murderous, costumed villains they fight. But comics writers were allowed one guy. One hero who was going to look and act like a villain. A guy whose only power was that he was crazy and had lots of guns. No code. No moral hang-ups. Just a "murder the bad guys" kinda guy. That hero is the Punisher.

For a while the Punisher appeared mostly in titles starring Spider-Man (see The Clone Saga). He received his first origin story in Marvel Preview #2 (April, 1975), again written by Conway. He received another solo story in Marvel Super Action #1 (January, 1976), a one-shot publication. After that Punisher returned to making appearances in titles featuring Spider-Man, Captain America, and Daredevil. In the 1980s, Steven Grant and Mike Zeck campaigned for a Punisher mini-series. But Marvel editors were reportedly reluctant. The series eventually did materialize: Punishervol. 1 (January-May, 1986). It sold well and consequently Punisher gained his first ongoing series in 1987. The Punisher has since starred in various magazines over the years, even gaining four multi-part events that ran through various titles in the nineties, said events being Suicide Run, Countdown, and Over the Edge.

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Frank Castle is a Vietnam War veteran who saw his wife, son and daughter slaughtered in a Mafia hit gone wrong. So he got himself a black shirt with a scary white skull on the front and a whole lot of guns, and started a one-man war on crime.

The big difference between him and, say, Batman? Castle kills the criminals that he fights. A lot. Often several dozen at a time.note His confirmed "high scores" to date are approximately 2,000 in the Marvel Universe with a nuke, and 68 in one night, with 32 in a single location in the MAX continuity. Wizard magazine also had his death count as slightly above 1,000, pre-Ennis and later in MAX, this is mentioned to have climbed to 2K. Combine all that together, and the total death toll comes around to an astounding four thousand bad guys. He uses machine guns, explosives, a certain amount of martial arts, knives, and on occasion, wildlife (most notably, the time that he punched a polar bear in the face to get it riled enough to eat some Mafia hitmen). He can be very, very sadistic. He tends not to get on with Marvel's actual superheroes, especially when he's written by comic-book scribe Garth Ennis; many fans think Castle and Ennis were a match made in heaven.

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The tone of the stories vary from violent pitch-black comedy to intensively grim-and-gritty noir tales to attempts to make him a full-on Super Hero... who just so happens to kill people. His enemies have ranged from sex slavery rings (the MAX arc "The Slavers" being possibly one of the single darkest stories in the history of comics, if not the history of fiction) to gigantic Russian hitmen augmented with cyborg body parts and enormous breasts... both of them written by Ennis.

The character himself often suffers from inconsistent writing. Many writers have portrayed him as a good man at heart who sincerely does want to help people and keep them from suffering the same way he did, while other writers have portrayed him as a psychopath with no pity for anyone and no motivation beyond killing criminals. There are two notably different Punisher series: the main Marvel Universe series and a second series created for Marvel's adults-only MAX imprint (originally titled The Punisher and referred to as Punisher MAX, before changing to The Punisher: Frank Castle and then PunisherMAX). This latter version, written almost exclusively by Garth Ennis for four years, features no superheroes and is deeply rooted in "mundane" crime — The Mafia, Irish terrorist cells, Eastern European sex slavers, gangsters and real-life wars are prominent. It is also considerably less funny than the mainstream Marvel series, though there are touches of black humor here and there. The MAX series is written much more consistently than the mainstream version, due to being almost entirely shaped by Garth Ennis' vision of the character; this series is also notorious for its moral absolutism. The Marvel Universe version may be willing to excuse himself for killing a friend's girlfriend while under the influence of a "hate ray", but the first post-Ennis MAX issue sees Frank on the edge of killing himself after believing that his instinctive shooting had led to an innocent girl's death, declaring to himself that "I must be punished."note Realizing the possibility of a setup is the only thing that lets him live long enough to exhume the body, which he finds was slain with a bullet of a different caliber from what he had been carrying. Turned out that it was a setup to get him out of the way of a local crime syndicate.

An Alternate Universe version is a major character in the Spider-Gwen books, where he's portrayed as being somewhat less stable than the mainstream version.

When his film rights reverted back to Marvel in the early 2010s, many wondered if The Punisher ever officially join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Outside of a reference in All Hail the King, there weren't any immediate plans to reintroduce the character. In June 2015, it was announced that The Punisher would make his MCU debut during the second season of Daredevil, played by Jon Bernthal. After months of speculation following the release of Daredevil, it was later confirmed that The Punisher would later spinoff into his own series.

Ditto with Barracuda from Punisher Max, who is like a bizarre fusion of Michael Clarke Duncan from Armageddon and Michael Clarke Duncan from Sin City, it can be hard to take him seriously as a villain at first at least until he kidnaps Frank's baby daughter, murderers Frank's only real friend, threatens to eat said baby daughter, and is subsequently chopped into pieces by Frank with a fire axe.

All Crimes Are Equal: During his days as a semi-antagonist in the pages of Spiderman and Daredevil, Punisher briefly became one of these, going after people for crimes like jaywalking and littering, having gone off the deep end and decided that all small crimes eventually cascade into big ones. This was eventually retconned when he was given his own series and it was revealed that he'd been involuntarily drugged during this period and eventually detoxed in prison. These days he doesnt care much about crimes beyond drug dealing and murder, though he's obviously not happy with smaller crimes either.

All Just a Dream: The infamous comic of Frank traveling back in time to kill Al Capone is just Frank having a dream. His "favorite" as he claims.

Alternate Company Equivalent: The Punisher is modeled very closely on the character of Mack Bolan, who also lost his family to mob violence and becomes a vigilante with the nickname "The Executioner". Mack Bolan was featured in a series of books that were first published in 1968, and new books in the series still come out today.

Always a Bigger Fish: Frank easily kills normal human villains. Put him against a genuine superhuman, though, and he's in trouble. Both Thor and the Hulk have curbstomped him at least once apiece. Taken to its logical conclusion with the "Punisher vs. Daken (a.k.a. Wolverine's psychotic killing machine of a son with all of dad's powers)" story arc in Dark Reign: Daken takes Frank apart. Literally. He's had bigger success against lower-level superpowered villains who don't know how to use their powers properly. One of his biggest victories was against Electro, though this didn't result in Electro's death.

And Call Him "George"!: The Russian puts his arm around the shoulder of one of the guys assigned to escort him for reassurance, and it kills him.

Arch-Enemy: For obvious reasons, criminals rarely make repeat appearances. The closest thing Frank's got is Billy "Jigsaw" Russo, whose main claim to fame is tussling with Frank a few dozen times and actually living to talk about it.

A few do stand out. In one case, a man actually managed to get the drop on Frank and drugged him into a stupor, then kicked the shit out of him while he was helpless. If that wasn't enough, he also talked down to the Punisher like he was a pet or a small child. Finally, when he's ready to untie Frank, he explains that he's also given him a slow-acting poison that will kill him in six hours, and that he wants Frank to kill some people for him. "I don't have the antidote. I don't know where it is. My associates do. You'll get it when the job is done. Kill me, you're just killing yourself. Understand?" The Punisher nods, and the man is too stupid to realize that Frank is just confirming that he understands, nothing more. Once he is untied, the Punisher immediately breaks the man's neck. Frank: "Won't waste time looking for the antidote. Probably doesn't exist." Asshole Victim, indeed. The guy was practically begging for what he got.

Frank: Maybe...you know what this is all about? Maybe I'm just trying to kill myself, in expiation for having failed to protect my family. Go out in a blaze of glory.

Author Appeal: Garth Ennis' run prior to the MAX series. His distaste for Catholicism is shown with the psycho priest, while his dislike for popular masked super heroes is shown in a fight with Frank vs. The Russian where Spider-Man steps in; all Spidey does is get the shit kicked out of him and act like a human shield for Frank. Wolverine gets even worse treatment, as he's written like a goofy buffoon who Punisher unloads all manner of weaponry on since he'll just regenerate. Surprisingly, Daredevil of all people is given a good deal more respect.note Most likely because aside from his enhanced senses Daredevil's abilities are due to training, practice and effort similar to Punishers rather than by winning the super-hero lottery by accident (Spiderman) or genetics (Wolverine).

Avenging the Villain: After Punisher kills Julius Cabrone, his daughter Rosalie hires several assassins after him. This isn't an one-time incident, as in the words of Punisher: "I've got more vendettas against me than I can count."

Kill the Poor-themed vigilante The Elite's son comes after Frank for killing his father, using the same identity. It didnt work out for him either.

Badass Longcoat: Frank's often depicted wearing a black trench coat, especially in more modern stories where it replaces his more traditional comic costume. Typically, towards the end of the story, when he starts to mean business he just stops wearing it. In War Zone, he trades up the longcoat for a more mobile outfit, replacing the longcoat with body armor.

Badass Normal: Castle has no superpowers of his own, and typically most of his foes are either just mooks or other badass normals. However, he has gone toe-to-toe with various superheroes and villains in the past.

Exemplified with his fight against Sentry where Frank wins against the Cosmic - Level villain through a combination of guile and military grade C-4.

To be clear, Frank's victory was not actually defeating him in combat, but simply escaping from a being who is fast enough to travel across a continent in seconds. A near-impossible feat for any mortal, even those with superpowers.

Nick Fury is well aware of Frank's capabilities, and despite him having no superpowers, he states that Frank's training, fighting skills, use of weaponry, and ability to carefully plan his attacks make him the equal of many supers. He even goes so far as to tell his people that if they ever really needed to take out Doctor Doom, part of the plan would be to drop both the Hulk and the Punisher on opposite ends of Latveria, turn them loose, and watch to see which one would reach the center of the nation (and Doom) first. This actually makes very good sense, as Doom would likely focus all his efforts on the Hulk and not have the time to realize how much Frank was fucking things up under the radar or the resources to spare in order to deal with him.

One of the earlier stories had Frank stranded in Alaskan wilderness and picking a fight with a bear.

And there is the infamous moment when he deliberately angered a bunch of polar bears to kill mobsters in a zoo.

Punisher: Cuddly. Lovable. Docile. *POW* That won't do at all.

Berserk Button: Frank doesn't go berserk very often. If someone pisses him off or is on his list, he will go about killing them very methodically and efficiently. He can and will, however, go berserk if you hurt women or children. In addition, mocking or ridiculing or insulting Captain America means he will go insane on your ass. He respects Cap so much that he on one occasion where Cap was kicking his ass, Frank absolutely refused to fight back at all. In one story line, he saw a news story where a man dressed in a costume that was very similar to Cap's was boasting about killing illegal immigrants. Frank: "I'm stealing a car. I'm driving to New Mexico. And when I get there I'm going to shoot that guy in the face!"

Black and White Insanity: Depending on the writer, of course, but some versions of the Punisher show his obsession with justice as twisting his mind. Taken to the extreme in "The Punisher: The End", where he tracks down the sole survivors on a post-nuclear apocalypse Earth and executes them, because they're the various corrupt and amoral power players whose greed led to the war in the first place. What makes this example worse is that Punisher knows that their bunker also has a stockpile of preserved human embryos and the devices to bring them to term, meaning that this bunker could be used to restore the human race... and he still kills everyone. Not just the fat cats, but the doctors who could look after that stockpile. His rationale boils down to, essentially, because humans create crime, humanity doesn't deserve to live.

Black Comedy: Shows up from time to time throughout the character's history, but Ennis's early 2000s run is built on it.

Black Like Me: One arc has Frank go to a Back-Alley Doctor after Jigsaw slshes up Frank's face. The doc's treatment heals the scars but also turns Frank black, allowing him to fight alongside Luke Cage for a while.

Blood Knight: Why does Frank kill? 33% for revenge, 33% for justice, and 33% because he likes it; the remaining 1% is just plain crazy.

Blue and Orange Morality: Criminals and heroes alike are forever pointing out to Frank that he's fighting a war he cannot win: no matter how many rapists, dealers and murderers he kills, there will always be others to take their place, and once he dies he won't have accomplished anything. None of them ever seem to realize that Frank is perfectly aware of this, and is absolutely not afraid to die (in one story he's poisoned, spends the last six hours of his life killing as many criminals as he can, and is pissed off that he gets injected with the antidote at the last second).

Body Horror: The main villain in POV miniseries is a terrorist who got doused with experimental formula, turning him into a bloodsucking mutant. When he attacks a pregnant woman, the result is a tentacled sewer-dwelling monster baby.

Book-Ends: The first issue of Garth Ennis' mainstream series ended with Frank throwing a criminal off of the Empire State building. In the last issue, he does the same thing again and reflects on all that's happened since he came back.

Brainwashed and Crazy: Has happened a couple of times to Frank. He tried killing jaywalkers and his second sidekick's girlfriend.

Breakout Character: The Punisher originally appeared as a Spider-Man villain in 1974. He became popular and started to appear on a regular basis, eventually getting his own series in the '80s.

Brooklyn Rage: While some men might seek vengeance on those who killed their family, Frank Castle doesn't settle that low. He wants to kill every criminal. Every single one.

He once used an unconscious Spiderman as a shield while fighting the resurrected Russian. When Spidey came to, he had one hell of a headache.

His first hit in Welcome Back, Frank features a firefight in a morgue, where a mook lifts up a corpse and tries to use it as a shield. Frank's comment as he shoots both is that you should not hide behind a skinny corpse.

Bulletproof Vest: Frank's original costume is decorated body armor, but the better writers make it clear that being shot even while wearing such protection is much like getting hit by a truck.

When Frank walks in on Anti-Venom busting a Mexican crime syndicate in New Ways to Live, they team up until he realizes Anti-Venom is his old adversary Eddie Brock. Castle promptly shoots Anti-Venom — who was in the process of thanking him — point-blank in the face with a shotgun, and when the last surviving thug takes the ex-drug addict Anti-Venom had been using as an informant hostage, Frank coldly states, "That's not a girl... it's a junkie" and takes aim, causing Anti-Venom to pull his head back together, severely pissed off, and smash Frank through a wall. Frank reluctantly agrees to a truce, but spends the rest of the series trying to catch Eddie with his symbiote retracted, rebuking Eddie pointing out they're Not So Different, and makes no secret of his intent to kill Eddie the moment he lets his guard down.

In a crossover with Wolverine written by Garth Ennis, Punisher repeatedly abuses Wolverine, including shooting him in the crotch with a shotgun and crushing him under a steamroller. Even though, as he can plainly see, Wolverine keeps getting back up unhurt after each attack. Fortunately, Wolverine never decides to seriously retaliate, though he does swear a grudge on Castle for everything he did to him.

Though in Wolverine #186, Wolverine did win a fist-fight with Punisher and then mocked him for having a bag full of magazines depicting skimpily-clad muscular guys.

In "The Incredible Hulk #395", Punisher decides to go after "Mr. Fixit" during a trip to Vegas. Thing is, Mr. Fixit is an alter-ego of the Hulk, and so Punisher's attack doesn't exactly work out how he expected. He riddles Fixit with bullets, to no avail, and then throws a grenade at him — and only doesn't blow himself up because he had the good fortune to run into "The Professor" (Hulk with Banner's personality dominant), so he caught the grenade and let it blow up inside his clenched fist. Then, when Frank attacked him with a knife, Hulk tapped him on the head with one finger and knocked him out cold.

He's been beaten up by Batman (Bruce Wayne) twice, in the Deadly Knights crossover and in JLA/Avengers #1.

In Marvel Zombies Vs Army Of Darkness #2, he ignores the zombie plague to continue business as usual, alienating or killing off his potential allies before ultimately being devoured by a bunch of superhuman zombies.

In Runaways #26, he makes the mistake of threatening the Runaways at gun-point for their criminal relations. Pint-Sized Powerhouse Molly promptly punches him in the gut so hard that it takes all of Frank's willpower not to collapse on the spot, and he is effectively taken out of action.

Buried Alive: Oneshot comic Die Hard in Big Easy starts with a Voodoo-practicing villain burying Frank alive as a part of a ritual to turn him into a Voodoo Zombie. He of course manages to get out, and the comic ends with Frank paying the villain in kind.

Frank's usual reaction when he runs into somebody trying to Avenge The Villain. However, this also applies to people that Frank accidentally helps.

At the end of the issue that introduced Jigsaw, Nightcrawler and Spider-Man discuss how much the guy hated Punisher for disfiguring him; but for Frank, it's such a mundane occurrence he doesn't even remember it.

Butt-Monkey: Detective Soap, the biggest joke of NYPD, is the prime example. For that matter, if you're a police officer and The Punisher's case is assigned to you, it's a sure sign that you're in danger of becoming this. Charlie Schitti would be another great example of Butt-Monkey, if not for the fact that just still being alive and not crippled or disfigured at the end is remarkably lucky for a (former) mobster. Of course

One of the villains was a cult leader named The Rev, who was an analogy to Jim Jones.

"Politically naive" actress-turned-activist Alice from War Journal is one to Jane Fonda.

Carnival of Killers: An early arc in Punisher: War Zone had the New York mob hiring the seven best assassins in the world to hunt down the Punisher. Such things are something of an occupational hazard for The Punisher.

Celibate Hero: Frank doesn't seem to have much interest in the ladies, but this is most likely justified by the fact that he still thinks about his family and/or he's too busy killing scum. He has had romantic encounters with some women, including the one that resulted in his illegitimate daughter in the MAX series, but it's not a significant part of his characterization outside of when he's written by Mike Baron, who has him sleeping around as much as your typical action hero.

Characters Dropping Like Flies: Given the basic premise, no one is safe from death (even Frank died once, though he came back — while making no reference to the whole affair).

In addition, Frank's ability to tolerate pain is shown to be off the scale, which allows him to keep functioning despite injuries that would have any other man completely incapacitated. It helps that Frank is both Made Of Iron and a Determinator. Nick Fury and Tony Stark have both observed that Frank's ability to tolerate pain is absolutely psychopathic. When he's going after a target it doesn't matter how much he gets hurt. He just doesn't care.

Chest Insignia: The Punisher's iconic skull. Like Batman, it serves as a heavily armored target, and in the earlier issues the teeth were spare ammo magazines.

Classical Anti-Hero: Some writers also throw in this, a lonely, unstable shell of a man with no future, who can only function as a killing machine.

Cold-Blooded Torture: Frank: (Looking down at a merc who'd just fallen into a pit full of sharpened stakes that Castle had dug for him) "Two through your chest. One through the groin, it looks like. You'll die if you don't get medical attention soon." Merc proceeds to tell Castle everything he wants to know. When he's finished, he asks weakly "...that medical attention...?" Frank: "No." Of course, said merc was already dying, even if Frank wanted to, he couldnt have saved him.

Frank Castle: When you're on your own, behind enemy lines, no artillery, no air strikes, no hope of an evac, you don't fight dirty. You do things that make dirty look good.

Frank is also shown as being very skilled with in both knife fighting and hand-to-hand combat, but consistently prefers to use firearms unless he absolutely has no other choice. "As far as I'm concerned, if you're too close to shoot, you're too close, period."

Even though the Punisher uses a lot of different types of guns, as a Vietnam veteran, he shows a strong preference for weapons from that era such as the M16A1 assault rifle, the M3A1 and IMI Uzi submachine guns, the M60 machine gun, the Remington 700 sniper rifle or the M1911A1 pistol.

He actually had a ten-issue series titled "Armory" dedicated to showing off his guns and other equipment.

Crazy-Prepared: Frank personifies this pretty much all the time, to the point where it's very rare for him to ever encounter a situation he is not mentally or physically prepared for. It has simply become a way of life for him, as habitual as getting dressed in the morning. One story even showed how, whenever he travels by air and therefore cannot carry any weapons, the first thing he does when he lands is go to the airport gift shop and buy a pocket knife of some sort. "It's not much, but it'll do until I can get my hands on a gun." This saved him once when he was overpowered, tied up, and tossed in the trunk of a car. His abductor just assumed he didn't have a weapon since he was coming from the airport, and didn't search him. He was very surprised when he opened the trunk and discovered quite suddenly that Frank had not only cut himself loose, but had the knife in his hand and was perfectly willing to use it.

Crisis Crossover: He tends to be left out of these big events, partly because they don't fit his "realistic" tone, and partly because, as mentioned above, most of the spandex set really don't like him, and would rather see him in jail. Three notable exceptions:

In the Civil War, Captain America recruits him for the anti-registration side. Most of Cap's allies hate this — especially when Cap tries to recruit some low-level villains, who the Punisher promptly shoots dead in front of everyone.

Frank appears very briefly in JLA/Avengers. Batman sees him in action, and swiftly kicks the tar out of him.

Darker and Edgier: Though pretty mainstream by today's standards, the first Punisher miniseries (Circle of Blood) was a far cry from most other Marvel Comics products of the mid 1980s. Today, The Punisher: Frank Castle (the MAX imprint title) is the epitome of this trope for Marvel.

Decapitation Strike: The Punisher often pulls these off, as disorganized crime is easier to deal with. Averted where the Kingpin is involved, the usual justification being that taking him out will cause gang wars that will hurt civilians.

The Punisher Max begins with Frank sneaking up on the birthday party of the centenarian Don Cesare, shooting him and as many of the invited high-rankers as he can. The resulting power vacuum fuels much of the series.

In Welcome Back, Frank, Frank goes to a lot of trouble to rescue a Don being held hostage from a South American rebel camp. The Ungrateful Bastard betrays Frank and returns to New York, where he calls a meeting of the Mafia to deal with the Punisher once and for all. Frank calls him at that moment to ask him why he'd been rescued, if not as the best way to put a lot of high-ranking Mafia goons in the same room. Then shows up with an M-60.

Yet another has Frank booby-trap a building where various organized crime members are having a meeting. He pushes down the detonator, making it clear that if he dies, everyone dies, and promptly starts shooting the helpless criminals.

Barracuda once sent out invitations to multiple mob bosses in a single location in order to mow them down... and as bait for Frank.

Death by Newbery Medal: Frank's old guard dog, Max, which was killed off in the same arc it was introduced in. It's shot by a gangster trying to raid one of Frank's hideouts. When Frank sees that he's dying, he puts him down with a knife. Frank's crying when he does this. In a later two-parter, Max was retconned into surviving, and he's quite possibly still around to this day.

Depending on the Writer: How much Frank fights to help innocents and how much because he likes killing, as well as how sane he is in general. His feelings towards other Marvel heroes he runs into also varies with the writer. Does he view them as admirable but too soft? Just annoying obstacles in his path?

Depraved Dwarf: Frank and Wolverine take on an entire gang of these at one point, led by the midget brother of a mafia boss killed by Frank. It doesn't end well for them (or Wolverine).

The Determinator: Frank, of course. As he once said, "A man who doesn't have anything to lose, can't help but win."

Dirty Coward: About 95% of the criminals behave like this when on the wrong end of a gunpoint, begging Frank for their lives and promising him anything and everything (this never helps). The remaining 5% are mostly Psychos For Hire or otherwise too raving mad to feel fear — only very rarely do you see a sane villain who just has enough guts for something like "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner.

You know, it's kind of a waste of time to create new characters for The Punisher's books. If they're Frank's enemies, they get shot dead after an appearance or two. If they're Frank's friends, they get shot dead after an appearance or two.

The Dreaded: Frank himself. The white skull on his chest has become such a terrifying icon of death that just the sight of it can make men from EASTERN EUROPEAN DEATH SQUADS fall to their knees and sob for mercy.

Drugs Are Bad: To an almost cartoonish degree in the 80's, Frank apparently considered drug dealing to be the worst crime a person could commit this side of the Nurmberg trials. Has lessened since them, though he's not exactly thrilled about people using or selling drugs now either, he'll usually just go after dealers who are also killers.

In a What If, Castle visits the Our Lady of Saints church a few minutes before Eddie Brock does and winds up becoming Venom. Not knowing what the symbiote is (he thought it might be some sort of SHIELD experimental weapon) he uses the suit to it's full extent, until it starts going out at night when he's asleep to kill people, and at one point even hits Microchip. When the symbiote is cornered by Spider-Man, Moon Knight and Daredevil, Frank regains consciousness and realizes what has happened. He undergoes a Battle in the Center of the Mind and regains control of his body, and tells the symbiote that he will literally blow his brains out rather than let it control him, and basically forces it to obey him.

There was a brief period of time in the late nineties when Castle was given a supernatural bent for two miniseries (Purgatory and Revelation). He became a divine assassin on behalf of God, using angelic firearms to smite demons in return for a chance to be reunited with his family in heaven. Predictably, this didn't turn out to be a popular development. When Ennis began his run in "Welcome Back Frank", he pays lip service to it by acknowledging it before declaring: "It didn't work out."

Later, Morbius the Living Vampire resurrected Frank as a Frankenstein's Monster version of himself after a fight with Daken left Frank shredded into pieces.

In 2018, Nick Fury Jr. needs Frank to do some wetworks for him. In return, he gives Frank the location of the warehouse storing the War Machine armour. So for at least a number of issues, Frank is the new War Machine.

Early Installment Weirdness: These days it's generally accepted that Frank doesn't kill children or teenagers and if any writer contradicts that, they must hate him (this is commonly said about Frank's appearance in Runaways for example). However, back before he even got his first book and was being used by Frank Miller as a rival and foil to Daredevil, there was a story where he hunts down and murders a drug dealer stated to be between 13 and 15 years old and then rants how it wasn't him who killed the boy but Crime itself. Really early in his run, he once shot a guy for jaywalking. It is safe to say Frank has since switched to decaff.

Eat the Rich: Copycat vigilante Mr Payback, who targeted corrupt businessmen and other rich people who prey on the poor. A good deal more sympathetic than his fellow copycats The Holy and The Elite. However, he killed at least four innocent people during his killing sprees, because, as Frank points out, he doesn't bother to actually PLAN anything, he just bursts in and goes nuts. As such, he's just as bad as the people he killed (not helped by him trying to justify himself that "losses has to be expected", something Elite and the Holy also try).

Epic Fail: In Issue #18 of the original Punisher: War Journal series, Frank is in Hawaii tracking down a gang of drug dealers. He ends up armed with an old double barreled pistol taken off the body of Captain Cook. Frank ambushes one of the dealers and fires at him, causing a loud bang and bright flash...followed by the ball bearing slipping out of the pistol. Frank then throws the gun at the guy, which he ducks, causing the pistol to smack against the stump of a tree... which makes the other barrel discharge, hitting Frank right in the kevlar.

In Superior Foes of Spiderman, Punisher attempts to assault a group of supervillains including Mister Negative and Tombstone... Only for C-Lister Shocker to knock him out in one hit.

During the Slavers arc in Punisher MAX, Frank attempts to ambush the hired guns for the slavery ring. Frank has forgotten, however, that these are not the usual street punks with poor aim and no tactics. These were hardened soldiers from the Yugoslav wars. Frank was nearly killed.

He will not kill cops as a general rule, even crooked ones. The rare occasions where he does are usually accidental, self-defense, or the guy just REALLY deserved it.

He's willing to spare people who make their case that they're only committing crime under duress. He's let people go who were being blackmailed or forced into criminal activities, since they convinced Frank they weren't going to be career criminals. The trick, however, is getting him to ease off the trigger long enough to convince him.

He's also more willing to spare kids and teenagers, under the logic that they're young and will learn from his little visit to not be involved anymore.

Criminals that are currently being processed by the system (e.g. in court or custody) he leaves alone. He also doesn't go after defendants who have been legitimately cleared by a court of law. Now, if they get off when they're clearly guilty, then they become fair game once more.

Finally, as much as he has a beef with New York's other costumed heroes (most of them really aren't into the whole "killing without trial" thing), any time he goes fisticuffs with them, he will never kill them, only seek to disable them. As much as he thinks they don't do enough about crime, he respects that they're doing something.

The mainstream incarnation of The Punisher has only once succeeded at dispensing his own brand of justice to significant supervillains he encounters, even those who badly screw with him personally, like Bullseye. Probably that's why he mostly goes for mundane mobsters, who don't have Joker Immunity (or superpowers). The one exception is Stilt Man, which he got with a bazooka to the groin. The saddest aspect of all is, getting offed by the Punisher was probably was the high point of Stilt Man's career.

No matter what continuity Frank appears in, he will always lose his family to set up his reason for becoming The Punisher.

Frank is well aware that he has zero chance of ever actually winning his war on crime, or even making a serious dent in the criminal population. MAX Microchip calculates that Frank has killed about 800 people in the 30 years he's been active (in that continuity, mainstream canon is all over the place). Anyone with even a passing understanding of population statistics can tell you that is less than a fraction of a fraction of 1% of the U.S professional criminal population, much less the rest of the world.

False Reassurance: If you're a criminal and The Punisher promises you something like "scratching your name from his list"... you better talk anyway, even if you recognize what that means, as being shot right after giving him the necessary information is still preferable to his other methodsof loosening tongues. Frank might feel generous if you're a random thief or dealer, but if you're a killer, you're basically already dead.

Filler Arc: The "Taxi Wars" arc in the Marvel Knights run, those issues(and the one-shot where Frank travels back in time to kill Al Capone ( which was All Just a Dream) are the only ones during that period not written by Garth Ennis and are also the only Knights issues to not be reprinted. They're not bad, they just stick out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the series.

The Punisher's appearance in Runaways, which isn't too surprising, as Joss Whedon kind of hates him, infamously referring to Frank as a killing and firearm-glorifying "coward" in an interview with Wizard.

Frank's Ultimate Marvel counterpart may be even more fanatic about his crusade than Frank is. Even having the Ultimate Marvel version of Ghost Rider, an agent of Satan, telling him "keep up the good work" doesn't dissuade him from his killing spree. He thinks the message comes from his family, or maybe even God himself. He's also even more suicidal than the regular Frank, to the point that, when he thinks he's accidentally killed an innocent person, he demands to be "Punished".

Chased by Mafia goons through a zoo, Frank runs through the polar bear enclosure, punches the first sleepy one he sees, and keeps running. By the time the goons get there, they are facing three very pissed-off polar bears.

In another story, Frank is driving around town killing various gang members and criminals. One group survives the initial attack and gives chase. Frank gets rid of them by driving through a Mafia meeting without stopping; the gangstas following aren't so lucky.

The Greatest Style: Played for Laughs in one story where a martial arts assassin is sent to take out the Punisher. After commenting on how many styles the guy's mastered, Frank introduces him to one doesn't know: Car Fu.

Gun Porn: The Punisher: Armory miniseries is an entire line devoted to loving descriptions of the guns and tactics Punisher uses.

The Punisher is often presented this way whenever he makes a guest appearance in more idealistic books like Spider-Man or Daredevil. However, in his own books, he's portrayed as a profoundly messed up individual, more tortured machine than man.

The MAX imprint is much darker and basically shows Frank operating as an uncompromising engine of vengeance in a Crapsack World. He's fully aware that his war on crime has damned him to Hell and there's no hope of redemption. He just doesn't care.

Hero Antagonist: Any superhero that shows up in his comics is likely to become this. Especially Daredevil, who is the superhero most determined to put a stop to the Punisher, to the point where they might as well be members of their respective rogues galleries.

Heroic Dolphin: Subverted in an issue of The Punisher War Journal. A Hawaiian "kahuna" controls sealife to rescue Frank from being stranded in the sea, and he thinks to himself that he didn't know that dolphins rescuing humans was true. When he gets back to the shore, she reveals that she actually used a shark to help him.

Hidden in Plain Sight: Despite being a fugitive for 30+ years and having his mugshot on the news semi-regularly, the only time he is ever recognized is when he opens his coat and reveals the skull on his chest. Either people recognize him but pretend they don't or they don't watch a lot of news.

Played straight with the police, as it's made very clear the most if not all street cops totally approve of Frank's war on crime and don't put any effort into trying to apprehend him. Even the upper ranks of the NYPD only really focus on the Punisher when they are under intense political pressure. In addition, it's openly hinted many times (particularly in the MAX series) that Nick Fury personally ensures that Frank is not bothered by SHIELD.

Hollywood Silencer: Averted in Punisher: War Zone. During Castle's attack on Jigsaw's hideout, Castle uses an M4 variant with a suppressor. The gunshots sound more like muffled cracks than a "fwip". Also, the Smith and Wesson model 500 he uses is fitted with a suppressor which makes the shots sound like loud thuds.

Humiliation Conga: Detective Soaps entire life, to the point where it eventually stops being funny and just becomes depressing. Fortunatly, his life gets better once he decides to walk away from his job as a police officer. His new occupation? Porn star. Turns out he had unusually large genitals, but was unaware that they were bigger than average.

When Punisher ran into Wolverine, he took full advantage of the fact that he couldnt permanently kill or maim him. Blew off his face, blew off his crotch and ran him over with a steamroller. When Wolverine appears the next time, he understandably holds a grudge. Then Frank blows him up with a rocket launcher and has the Hulk punch him halfway across the east coast.

I Don't Like You and You Don't Like Me: In the mainstream Marvel Universe, this pretty much sums up how the heroes feel about him (they basically think he's a serial killer and no better than the crooks he kills) while Frank regards most if not all of them as dangerously naïve and unwilling to do what needs to be done. In the MAX Universe, this trope is averted as there are no supers or at least he never crosses paths with them.

Immune to Mind Control: The Punisher no sells every attempt to control his mind. He's so focused on his mission of killing criminals that nothing can distract him from it. Forget mind control, anyone who tries to extort or manipulate him will find out that he doesn't play along and they're going to wish they'd left well enough alone.

Impersonating an Officer: Frank has been known to use fake ID to enter crime scenes and get firsthand information before the detectives arrive.

Implacable Man: Frank himself, but the trope also extends to the enemies like the amnesiac Thorn, Roc who survived being shot in the head and having his neck broken and the Russian, who's just a large man.

The keeper would have to be punching out a polar bear to anger it into taking out a mob boss, and using a pizza and the morbidly obese Mr. Bumpo on The Russian.

Once he used the freakin' Hulk against Daredevil, Spidey, and Wolverine to get them off his back.

Improbable Aiming Skills: While most of Frank's fights are up close, he pulls this off every now and then. For example, in one of his earliest fights he manages to shoot out both of Spider-Man's web shooters while he's in mid-leap.

In Spite of a Nail: In the Spider-Gwen universe, Frank's family were never killed. Despite this, this version of Frank still becomes obsessed with "punishing" criminals (to the point where it actually drives his family away).

Irish Explosives Expert: The "Kitchen Irish" arc has one ... though his face is mangled from a bomb that blew up in his face, so either he had a bad day or the "Expert" part of the trope name doesn't quite fit. To be fair, homemade explosives are volatile at the best of times, and being an expert won't keep them from backfiring on you.

It Works Better with Bullets: While attempting to infiltrate a drug cartel, the cartel's boss hands Punisher a rifle and orders him to execute a captured DEA agent. The Punisher turns the gun on the boss only to discover that the gun is unloaded. It was a test of Frank's loyalty.

Jerkass: Kevin the bartender, who is always giving Det. Soap a hard time.

Frank come off as this sometimes, especially towards Soap, who he's even stated that he keeps him around because Soap's whiny personality makes it harder to feel bad in case criminals use Soap to get to him. He's also needlessly antagonistic towards Spiderman and Daredevil, who's sole crime is trying to keep Frank from turning New York into a slaughterhouse.

His time on General Ross's Thunderbolts has a rather nasty scene where Ghost Rider is killed when his powers mysteriously fail in the middle of a crocodile-infested river (secretly sabotaged by The Leader who had found some mystical way of disrupting them), and his only response is a snide remark about how superpowered individuals have no idea how their powers work and how he'd rather trust in his guns. Fittingly, this storyline has both him and Electra, the Badass Normal's of the group, die when they're stuck in a pit trap in an ancient temple, a trap that Ghost Rider could easily have escaped (not that either of them mind all that much, being Death Seeker's). This entire timeline is erased when Ross ends up rewinding time with the help of an infant Celestial.

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Frank is homicidal towards criminals and is very cold to innocents he comes across, but he does genuinely show concern for innocents. He does have a softer side that comes out on very rare occasions, too — he was notably a perfect gentleman towards Miss Grundy in Archie Meets the Punisher.

Also gets a beautiful one in the MAX story "Mother Russia" , which involves Frank rescuing a little girl from some Russian soldiers, he is very protective of the girl, even admonishing another character for cursing in front of her.

Also in "Mother Russia", the Batman Cold Open features Frank rescuing an elderly Russian WW2 veteran from some gangsters, with Frank explaining that he "has a thing about respecting his elders."

One story has Frank go undercover as Santa Claus in an orphanage. To set up a booby trap, he tells the kids to make snowmen, but ends up barking out orders as if he was still in the armed forces, telling the kids the exact height and spacing to give the snowmen so the grenades will be more effective.

In a broader sense, Frank's consistent edge on the mobsters is that he still thinks like a soldier, whereas the mobsters are rarely used to facing anything tougher than another gang.

Most notably, the Kingpin. The biggest gang boss in New York, but it's been explained that Frank can't kill him because if he does, New York will be devastated by gangs trying to take his place.note The Punisher's first miniseries actually had Frank claim to have killed Fisk, who was not in New York at the time. He spends the following issues trying to stop the resulting gang war from spiraling out of control. Also Jigsaw, who Frank has let live numerous times except in the 2008 movie, where Frank impales him with a metal rod, then pushes him onto a large torch. Frank finally kills Kingpin, along with Bullseye, Green Goblin, and several other villains for real just before the Incursion that destroys Earth-616.Though this undone post Secret Wars, ultimately playing the trope straight.

Lampshaded in his crossover with Batman. Frank has cornered the Trope Namer himself, who immediately starts cracking jokes about going to Arkham. Frank just coldly cocks his handgun and prepares to blow off the Joker's head, until Batman intervenes.

Karma Houdini: Strange, given the nature of the character, but there have been a few.

One arc set in Baltimore involved a family of drug dealing hicks led by an Evil Matriarch. After killing her boys, Frank breaks into their home and demands to know who's in charge, and Maw blames it all Paw, allowing her to escape Frank's wrath.

A drug designer named "Wizard" also never crosses paths with Frank, and makes it out of the story intact.

The "Sicilian Saga" arc had Frank's uncle and aunt killed on the orders of local mafia boss Elio Bessucco. Despite encountering him during a mob wedding in a later arc, he managed to escape and hasn't been seen since.

Finally there's Salvatore Carbone, AKA Thorn, who was one of the only recurring villains not killed off before the "Angel Punisher" story arc.

Kill Sat: The oneshot comic G-Force features a drug-dealing astronaut who uses the laser-firing satellite that his company built for the French government to fry his rivals. Punisher follows the guy into space, and uses the thing to destroy his own operations after killing him.

Kill the Poor: The Elite, a rich vigilante who starts out targeting any drug dealers who try to move into his neighborhood, but eventually branches out into anyone he considers "lower class", including a hot dog vendor. His personal philosophy is basically Nazi Lite. His son is even worse.

Killer Yo Yo: One of Frank's one-time villains was an evil scientist named Dr. Ng, who used a razor-sharp yo-yo as a weapon.

Knife Nut: When met with an assassin who prefers knives, Frank's inner monologues notes that one must be either insane or really good to use knives. Then he notes that knives are nothing against guns, and blows the guy away.

Lampshade Hanging: The aforementioned split in The Punisher's portrayal as regards to his interactions with the rest of the Marvel characters is lampshaded in Secret War: Secret Files (written in the voice of Nick Fury as entries in the SHIELD database); it comments on how it seems like Castle lives in "two different worlds," one where he interacts with the other heroes and one where he never crosses paths with them. Also:

"I caught a glimpse of heaven once. The Angels showed me. The idea was I'd kill for them. Clean up their mistakes on Earth. Eventually redeem myself. Tried it. Didn't like it. Told them where to stick it. So they brought me up to heaven, to see what I'd be missing. A wife. A son. A daughter. I hadn't seen them since they bled out in my arms. Then I was cast down. Back to a world of killers. Rapists. Psychos. Perverts. A brand new evil every minute, spewed out as fast as men can think them up. A world where pitching a criminal dwarf off a skyscraper to tell his fellow scum you're back is a sane and rational act. The angels thought it would be hell for me. But they were wrong."

Let's You and Him Fight: In their very first meeting, Punisher and Wolverine attempted to kill each other because they mistook each other for poachers. They form a strong friendship soon after.

Lighter and Softer: After getting his own series, Punisher became a good deal more sympathetic, to the point that he rarely used real bullets in crossovers. This reached it's hightpoint in a crossover with Power Pack (Frank does have a soft spot for kids, but that usually extends to just avoiding them so they won't get caught in the crossfire and protecting them from bad guys, not teaming up with them).

Like You Would Really Do It: After having enough of Daredevil's meddling, Frank stuns him and chains him up so Daredevil has a gun pointing at Frank (who's getting ready to snipe a mob boss). Frank tells Matt that the only way to stop him is to kill him (Frank likes prison, the criminals are much closer at hand), and while Daredevil finally finds it within himself to pull the trigger, the gun is empty.

Limited Wardrobe: While it's entertaining to think that Frank has been wearing the same skull T-shirt all these years, no doubt stained with the blood of hundreds, he appears to have lots of spares. He even states in one comic devoted to showing his equipment and methods that he orders the shirts by the gross (gross = 144).

Made of Iron: To an absolutely insane degree, The Punisher can take a lot of punishment. He has survived falls from considerable heights, countless gunshots (even unarmored), being stabbed, being brutally beaten up and much, much more during his career. He has even tangled with super-powered beings more often than the Average-Joe Badass Normal of the Marvel Universe (with the possible exception of Daredevil).

Merry Christmas in Gotham: There's a story where Frank is about to snipe a drug lord, when suddenly there's a little girl pulling on his coat telling him she's lost her dad. Frank stares at her and puts the gun away. When they find her dad, he starts to thank him before recognizing his chest emblem and starting to panic. Frank tells him to calm down, that he should really teach his daughter not to talk to strangers, and then leaves.

Moral Dissonance: Even as he's not quite an example himself (his morality is frequently called out by other characters), Frank's a frequent source of Moral Dissonance in the Marvel Universe; among other examples, the notable one is heroes (such as Spider-Man) who don't get along with Frank usually get along a-okay with Wolverine, who is also an unrepentant killer (if of significantly differing levels of moral culpability and dangerousness).

Mook Chivalry: Obviously used quite a lot. What makes this extra-hilarious is that the smarter bosses (Cavella, Zakharov, Maginty) actually take the failings of their Mooks into account and use it to engineer Batman Gambits; Zakharov manages to blindside Frank with this trope twice.

More Dakka: Frank's solution to most problems is massive firepower. Submachine guns are just the starting point for automatic ballistic mayhem in his arsenal.

Mugging the Monster: Happens to Frank a lot, considering his habit of walking around the worst neighborhoods alone. Naturally, this does not end well. In one short story, Frank pretends to be a drunken hobo to the specific purpose of practicing his knife fighting.

He has fought many super powered heroes and villains, sometimes beating them or at least fighting to a draw, with nothing more than his wits, aim, and guns. Averted of course at times... Depending on the Writer.

In Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe Frank kills the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants with a tactical nuke he stole from Doctor Doom.(He killed Doctor Doom too, by the way.)

Mutually Unequal Relationship: Soap thinks he's Vitriolic Best Buds with Kevin the bartender, Kevin thinks he's a whiny, annoying little shit (and while the audience sees his point, he also does things like not tell an oblivious Soap he's hitting on a man or a drag queen or his own mother). Things come to a head when Soap attempts to commit suicide in the bathroom, and Kenny is disgusted with him... because of the inconvenience it'll be to clean out the bathroom afterwards. Soap snaps, grows a spine, puts Kevin back in his place and goes out to confront the Punisher at last. It only lasts long enough for Frank to tell him to go away, which Soap does, finally finding a more fulfilling career as a porn star.

Never Hurt an Innocent: This is one of the reasons the Punisher is an AntiHero. He takes great pains to avoid civilian casualties while he's gunning down dozens of goons. Frank has also on occasions been shown to dislike killing animals, because an animal can't truly be guilty. That said, Frank's definition of "innocent" can be very narrow, as he would have shot an otherwise innocent drug addict to get to the gangster holding her hostage in New Ways to Live. This, like many of his traits, varies quite a bit by the writer.

Generally averted; however, the Punisher has been known to carry less-lethal weapons around. In the earlier stories, he often used "Mercy Bullets" when teamed up with other superheroes so as not to violate their no-kill rules; with no explanation as to what they were. Modern stories will sometimes explicitly mention him using rubber bullets. He'll usually only use non-lethal weapons grudgingly. For instance, in the Omega Effect crossover with Spider-Man and Daredevil:

Used for practical purposes when Punisher fought Electro during the 2011 series. Electro's powers makes it impossible to kill him with metal bullets, so Frank switched to rubber ones. It wont kill him obviously, but it hurt like hell.

Noodle Incident: We catch the tail end of Soap describing how he was once handcuffed to a dead sheep.

Not So Different: Many villains will cry and scream about how Punisher is just as bad as them. While Punisher acknowledges that this is probably true, he just doesnt care about true justice anymore, only vengeance.

Oh, Crap!: Punisher was taken aback when Anti-Venom got back up after having his head blown in half by a shotgun.

One Steve Limit: Averted. Oddly enough, one of the men who killed his family was also named Frank (surname Costa).

Only a Flesh Wound: About 90% of times when Frank actually gets shot, it's Only a Flesh Wound, as a side effect of him being Made of Iron. Sure, writers pay some superficial attention to things like blood loss and shock, but Frank still can operate at practically 100% efficiency within hours after, say, taking bullets from a machine gun in his flank and shoulder.

Frank is shown to be capable of at least consideration for others, although it rarely approaches truly displaying kindness. Understandable, in that he's a loner who knows better than to let anyone get too close to him. Still, if he feels a debt is owed or that he's obligated to someone, he'll make every effort to even things out.

Having beaten Jigsaw, Frank goes to finish the job when Soap calls for help, having been taken prisoner. It nearly costs him his life, as Soap tries to reason not to kill Jigsaw, before shouting a warning when he tries to shoot The Punisher.

Play-Along Prisoner: Whenever The Punisher is jailed, it's usually because he allowed himself to be (usually he walks up to a police station and says "I surrender"), so he can kill one or more guys who are unreachable otherwise. Given that he's the friggin' Punisher, no one gives him trouble (those that do don't last very long).

During the story arc wherein Matt Murdock was in prison, Frank even let himself be captured in order to be put in the same prison, because he knew that Matt was going to need an ally. The two of them have a healthy respect for each other, despite their completely different approaches to crime. They even carried on civil conversations while eating meals in the cafeteria, and Frank respected Matt enough to comply when he asked him not to kill a prisoner who'd just attacked him. They'll never exchange Christmas cards, though.

Once resisted Ghost Riders Penance Stare, under the reasoning that Frank doesnt feel guilty about his innumerable murder cases, it was against unrepentant criminals and the like so for Frank it was justice at work, not a collection of sins; that contradicts many instances where the Penance Stare is said to work on absolutely any living being who has ever sinned, taking a life regardless of the motivations behind it, i.e: Galactus can be affected by the Penance Stare even if he is a natural force of the universe who doesnt consider his planet-sized killings as something evil.

While Frank has had frequent clashes with "street level" heroes like Spider-Man and Daredevil, none of the bigger hero teams (such as the Fantastic Four and The Avengers, who could bring him in quite easily) seem to consider him worthy of their time. This is finally deconstructed during Greg Rucka's run; Spider-Man, disgusted by Frank's latest act, goes to his Avenger teammates, asking that they all work together to bring the Punisher in. He is initially ignored, until Captain America points out that allowing the Punisher to roam free means they're essentially condoning what he does, and that cannot stand. The Avengers send the next few issues hunting Frank down, and ultimately succeeding in sending him to prison. It doesn't last, though...

Phrase-Catcher: Joan the Mouse is prone to saying "Oh dear" whenever there's a problem. When a Russian mobster is rendered helpless by Frank's trap and Frank finds out he only has a tiny Swiss Army Knife to dispatch him with...

Frank: Oh dear.

Popularity Power: Let's be honest; Frank's crusade continues in the world of Marvel because of just how much readers and certain authors love the idea of a Badass Normal'90s Anti-Hero. He has on several occasions managed to achieve feats that, realistically, a normal man with a big gun should not be capable of, such as the time he beat Deadpool almost to death with a sword, or the time he fatally shot Sandman, who is an Elemental Embodiment of sand and thus has no blood or organs to lose.

Power Armor: Frank had Micro whip up a suit in order to combat a bunch of cybernetic mutant hunters. He broke it, and had in repaired in order to assault a gang boss who was selling a modified version of PCP... and then broke it again. Punisher 2099 has some as well.

Power Copying: New Ways To Live reveals that Punisher got replicas of Captain America's shield, the Green Goblin's glider, and Doctor Octopus' tentacles from a raid on one of The Hood's weapons stashes.

Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Gives one in Secret Wars 2015 When he crashes Kingpin's End of the World Party and kills Kingpin, Bullseye, Green Goblin, Lizard, Absorbing Man, Scorpion and Sandman.

Frank: Gentlemen, they say when you die you can't take it with you... which begs the question, what am I supposed to to with all of these bullets.''

Rage Against the Heavens: Frank was raised Catholic, but didn't have much use for the idea of forgiving people who'd done terrible things. The fact that he saw a lot of terrible things while still a child also caused him to have serious doubts about the idea of a loving God. Now when he sees terrible things done to innocent people, he's pretty direct about the way he feels: "There are times I'd like to get my hands on God."

In one Marvel Knights storyline, the Punisher took on Ulik the Rock Troll. It didn't go very well for him, because even Frank's most powerful weapons could do little more than annoy Ulik. When you're fighting someone who regularly goes toe-to-toe with The Mighty Thor, you've got to do a lot better than some fancy guns. The Punisher only survives the battle due to Daredevil bringing Ulik the magical artefact he had been seeking.

A crossover with The Runaways has this on both sides. For most of the story, the team, despite possessing superpowers, are still just kids, so they simply attempt to flee from Frank due to being terrified by his reputation. But once he has them cornered, Molly takes him down with a single punch, because at the end of the day he is still only human and she has Super Strength.

In the MAX series, three "vigilantes" decided to join forces to continue their war on "evil" and get the Punisher to lead them. However, the three all have their own views on who is evil. Elite wants to Kill the Poor, Mr. Payback wants to "Kill the rich", and the Holy wants to Kill Them All. These leads to Elite and Payback arguing and threatening with each other since both are exactly what the other one hates, leaving the Holy as the Ax-CrazyOnly Sane Man of the group. Another issue is that by themselves, they don't know how to develop a crimefighting group and spend most of the time arguing and getting nothing done. On top of that, they just think the Punisher is just going to join their group and lead it, ignoring the possibility that he wants nothing to do with them and that he would much rather want them dead.

Red Right Hand: The Russian from the Marvel Knights series' has a huge scar on his face.

The Resenter: In the Blood & Glory crossover miniseries with Captain America, Punisher resents Cap for being hailed as a hero of World War II, whereas he and other Vietnam veterans were branded as murderers of innocents for just being part of an unpopular conflict. Which makes it all the easier for the bad guys to dupe Punisher to believe that Cap is corrupted and part of the illegal weapons deals that had been happening recently, and try to assassinate him.

Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Frank's entire point, in some incarnations, tearing through entire towns worth of criminals connected to the death of his family.

Rogues Gallery: Given his usual M.O., Frank doesn't really have a lot of recurring villains, and even many who have had more than one appearance tend to eventually meet their end at his hands. Still, he's racked up quite an impressive number of enemies who have lasted over several issues (and in a few cases, at least two arcs); the most long-lasting of these is Jigsaw, who Frank has often chosen to keep alive on the grounds that the disfigured assassin is more of a danger to criminals than to innocents. Other villains of special note who have had repeat appearances in the 616 continuity include The Kingpin, Saracen, Damage, Thorn, Rosalie Carbone, Rapido, Ma Gnucci, the Russian, Recoil, Bushwacker, Sniper, Blackwell, the Elite, Gregario, the Rev, and Johnny Nightmare. The MAX continuity gives us Nicky Cavella, Rawlins and Barracuda.

Scope Snipe: The first Punisher story in The Nam depicts Frank Castle as a sniper in Vietnam. The entire two-part story is plagiarized verbatim from Carlos Hathcock's Real Life experience, including the Scope Snipe finale.

The "Valley Forge" arc in MAX concerns a Special Forces colonel who decides to take him down nonlethally with American soldiers because it's not right that he should use his training in that way. Also because he owes Frank his life from Vietnam, and lets him go when he discovers the generals who want Frank dead have less-than noble motives.

Serial Killer: In the Young Masters arc of Young Avengers, Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) notes that the superhero community of the Marvel Universe only sees the Punisher as a serial killer and any real hero would bring him down as hard as any villain if necessary.

Oddly, Frank's daughter has had at least four different names, Barbara, Donna, Christie and Lisa, while the name of his son (Frank Jr) is always consistent. Also Microchip's real name was originally "Lowell Bartholomew Ori", but was changed to "Linus Liberman" later. Additionally, the first time Frank's father is mentioned he's given the name "Mario", but a later story arc has him named "Lorenzo".

Also goes for Frank's last name (sometimes his birth name is Castiglione, other times it isn't; the whole thing was a clumsy attempt to add mobbed-up relatives as part of an Expansion Pack Past) and his Vietnam service (usually shown as an officer, many stories feature him instead as an enlisted rifleman). Several attempts at an Author's Saving Throw have him illegally re-entering the Marine Corps under his assumed name, which only raises further questions. Castiglione was established as his birth name in the first comic that his name was mentioned in at all. It was said that his parents changed it from Castiglione to Castle when he was six years old. It's not uncommon for immigrants to Americanize their surnames, so maybe it was just to give some extra backstory originaly.

Shell-Shocked Veteran: After three brutal tours of duty in The Vietnam War, Frank Castle lost his wife and children to Mafia thugs and now wages a one-man war on crime. Various authors have toyed with Frank's mental state relating to his past in the war.

The Rev, a Captain Ersatz of Jim Jones, and one of the few villains to survive his initial run-in with Frank.

The Holy, a catholic priest who is secretly a psychopathic vigilante targeting gang members and murderers who confess their crimes in his church.

Skeleton Motif: The Punisher is a vigilante who kidnaps, tortures and kills criminals. He wears a uniform/shirt with a skull insignia on the chest. It is deliberately done so that people aim for his better-armoured chest, rather than his head or joints.

Sleeping with the Boss's Wife: In an early story, a mob boss routinely mistreats his underlings, including killing them. When he and another mook open a door to find an explosive with only a few seconds left, the mook tells the boss he's been with the boss' wife for the past two years.

Small Name, Big Ego: While Frank usually focuses on street-level criminals rather than the world-threatening supervillains, he tends to look down on the superheroes, believing they don't have the guts to "do what it takes" like he does, which makes them inferior to him.

* after blasting Bushwacker through a wall* I don't smile much. Don't smile ever. But if I did, this would be one. This was especially prevalent in Garth Ennis 2000 and 2001 runs on the title, which made it extremely funny when something truly bizarre happened, and Punisher only made a slight facial change in surprise, such as the return of the Russian, who was now packing Double G breasts, or the mobster who's killed by a giant squid in the New York Harbor.

Avoided by having the Darker and Edgier Punisher relegated to his own MAX title while the Marvel Universe Punisher took up Captain America's costume for an issue and had some Lighter and Softer (by comparison) adventures.

Greg Rucka indicated, when starting his 2011 series, it was all a matter of viewpoint. The other superheroes are far better equipped to deal with major threats like Galactus, Norman Osborn, and Dormammu, but someone has to pay attention to the drug pushers and mobsters.

Tackled head-on in one storyline wherein Daredevil enlisted the assistance of both Spider-Man and Wolverine to capture Castle and turn him over to the police. While the Punisher would not use lethal force against them since he did not regard them as criminals, he still managed to create enough collateral damage that capturing him simply became not worth the cost. In addition, none of them had a ready answer when Frank pointed out that if they put him in prison, all he was going to do was start killing everyone else in there with him. All three heroes left, having to face the fact that short of killing him, there simply wasn't an easy solution to the Punisher.

This problem is finally dealt with in Punisher War Zone where the Avengers capture Punisher and Iron Man puts him in a highly technological custom prison with no other inmates for him to kill and no loose parts for him to break and free himself with.

Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Chuck Dixon has stated he regrets not introducing one during his run, noting in hindsight that throwing flamboyant rogues at Frank and seeing if any of them would stick did not create a compelling conflict. Garth Ennis deconstructed and subverted this trope with the character of Martin Soap. The 2016 relaunch plays this trope straight with Agent Ortiz.

Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Force Frank to team up with another hero, and this trope is the result. While he and the hero community in general tend to dislike one another, he's at least willing to work with them against the 'real' villains. Averted more often than most people might assume, at least in the nineties. Frank had quite a few crossovers, and most of the people he worked with were either okay with him or felt he was a good man at heart. There were only a few who outright hated him.

That Man Is Dead: Many superheroes and even villains make the mistake of trying to appeal to Frank Castle's conscience, honor, morality or anything else they can think of. Frank Castle is dead. Only the Punisher remains.

Thou Shalt Not Kill: Unlike the traditional position of heroes, it's rare when the villain du jour doesn't wind up getting killed by the end of the story.

Threatening Shark: A couple of mobsters thought that a big shark in an equally big (and not bulletproof) glass fish tank would be a great addition to their opulent mansion. They eventually learn their lesson just before their messy demise.

Too Dumb to Live: Quite a lot of villains. One minor gangster was dumb enough to brag about how he would take over his boss' territory and "business" when Frank (who had just offed said boss) was still right there; this was met with the predictable results:

Victory by Endurance: There's one story where a mook barely escapes from Frank, and his mental condition gradually worsens as he seeks help everywhere. Frank barely appears at all except at the end, allowing the mook to tire himself out all by himself.

Frank also has a disdain for other "amateur" vigilantes, as shown when he calls out the "Vigilante Squad" (a trio of Punisher fanboys who don't have as much scruples) for being Ax-CrazyKnight Templars before gunning them down.

Wall of Weapons: Frequently, with one issue devoted to a detailed study of his armory.

Weaponized Car: The Battle Van, which Frank had a tendency to trash every time he used it. He also once had what was basically a go-cart from Hell. It was destroyed in its second appearance.

What a Drag: Punisher did this once to a homophobic priest who had killed a young gay man, sparking a near-war between the sheriff (the victim's lover) and the military supplies dealer (the victim's mother).

To anyone who abuses their family, really. In the MAX series, he attacks a neighbor for having cheated on his wife. Granted, this was before he was the Punisher, and just after he'd lost his family, but still. He also snipes a woman who killed her children, even though she was already under arrest.

Worf Had the Flu: During a time when authorities were seriously breathing down on Punisher's neck, the Super SoldierCaptain America agrees to take him down. But since he is sick at the time (with a Clue from Ed. urging to readers to find out why in Cap's own book), Punisher is able to elude capture.

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